The present invention relates to a safety cap, in particular, a cap with a cover which cannot be opened without performing any predetermined cover opening operation, and a container with the cap.
There has been conventionally proposed a cap comprising a cylindrical main body to be fitted to the outer surface of a top opened neck portion and a cover for covering the upper surface of the main body as a cap for a container for containing therein various kinds of contents in addition to drink. Such a cap has an advantage that anyone can easily open the cap, but to the contrary, an infant or the like mischievously opens the cap, thereby resulting in a possibility that the contents spill around or is unjustly drained out.
In order to eliminate the above-described inconvenience, there has been proposed a safety cap requiring a difficult cover opening operation for others than an adult having some degree of manual dexterity: for example,
(1) A safety cap having an inner cap screwed at an outer surface of a neck portion of a container and an outer cap covering the outer surface of the inner cap in a not-pullable and rotatable manner, wherein the outer cap is idly rotated with respect to the inner cap so as to prevent the outer cap from being screwed out at all times even if the outer cap is rotated in an opening direction, the cap comprising a ball type torque transmission mechanism which is interposed between the inner and outer caps and is operated only when the outer cap is rotated in a closing direction and when the outer cap is rotated in the opening direction and the container is tilted in a certain direction (see Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 56-28939);
(2) A safety cap comprising an engaging pin, which penetrates through respective top plates of inner and outer caps, disposed in a detachable manner in place of the ball type torque transmission mechanism in the safety cap disclosed in the above item (1) (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-335610);
(3) A safety cap comprising engaging means, which engage with each other when an outer cylinder is rotated in a closing direction while disengage from each other when the outer cylinder is rotated in an opening direction, formed between a rotating cylinder fitted to the outer surface of a neck portion of a container in a not-pullable manner and the outer cylinder having a top, screwed at the outer surface of the rotating cylinder except for a lower end, wherein the outer cylinder is disposed in such a manner as to be idly rotated with respect to the rotating cylinder in a disengaging state and the outer cylinder can be de-screwed from the rotating cylinder since the engagement is released when a part of the lower end of the rotating cylinder is pressed (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-335611);
(4) A safety cap in which a cover is connected, via a hinge, to a rear portion of a cap main body having an pouring hole formed at a top plate, an operating plate suspended down from a cover front portion is inserted into a fixing tool formed into a U shape, as viewed from above, attached to the front surface of the main body, and the upper half of the operating plate separatably engages with the fixing tool by pressing the upper half of the operating plate rearward against the lower half of the operating plate (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 9-86550); and
(5) A safety cap in which locking pieces are formed on right and left side walls of a circumferential wall of a cap main body having a cover connected to the rear portion thereof via a hinge by boring a split groove in substantially an inverted U shape except for the lower end thereof, and the upper end of the locking piece separatably engages with the cover circumferential wall by pressing the locking piece inward (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-264953 and Japanese Patent No. 3,273,359).